A question about : Water usage down, bills up, when water meter installed
I'm all in favour of water meters, they are fair - as long as the water company isn't just trying to make a quick buck when they make you get one.
Our house used to be a 4-bed house with a 2-bed annexe (same address and water bill) and large garden - in one of the more affluent parts of Bristol (i.e. high rateable value). As such the water bill when we were not metered was about Ј35 per month.
Then the house was split into two properties, and we were forced to have a meter.
Our family of 4 tried to be really careful with using water, and in fact our consumption was below average, and yet our bills went up to Ј50 a month.
So how does Bristol Water justify charging around 40% more when the property size has reduced by 1/3 and the garden by about 3/4 (watered solely by rainwater)? Bear in mind that this is an affluent area so the original rateable value would have been quite high.
Using the rule-of-thumb guide that if you have more bedrooms than people (in our case 4 people and 6 bedrooms), then the bills should have gone down.
It smacks of opportunism to me.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?
Best answers:
- Bristol Water charges are here:
https://www.bristolwater.co.uk/wp/wp-...ained-2014.pdf
For unmeasured charges i.e. on Rateable Value(RV), for 2014/15 the Standing charges are Ј42 and combined water/sewerage charge is Ј2.67 per Ј1 RV.
If you were paying Ј35 a month(Ј420 pa) in 2014/15 that would mean the RV would be Ј142.
Far from being a high RV, Ј142 is an extremely low RV - many 3 bed semis will have a RV well above Ј200. Ј400 to Ј500 would not be unusual for a big detached house.
However the stupidity of the RV system means is not unusual for some large houses to have a low RV. Bear in mind that the last general revaluation of RV in England was in 1973(up to 1990 for houses built after that date) and many factors could have contributed to the low RV of your house.
So your assumption that your property would have a high RV is incorrect.
Turning to your current charges, the average consumption is 55 cubic metres per person per year - so 220 cubic metres pa for your family of 4.
From the charges in the link above, that consumption(220 cubic metres) would cost Ј828 pa - Ј69 a month if charged for 12 months. So as you rightly say, you are using well below average if paying Ј50 a month.
Quote: - Thanks for the detailed clarification.
Quote: - Bristol Water and the other companies in the SW have some of the highest charges in the Country. An element of the charge is to keep the beaches clean in this area - a fee that you could argue should be paid by central Government, not the residents as the benefit is for tourists and residents alike.
The whole privatised water system is a sorry mess.
I manage to get one over at the moment as my house has rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing, washing machine use etc and I use more metered rainwater than I do mains water so my bills are a lot lower than they otherwise would be - although at a substantial investment cost.
As Cardew says though, The profit they can make is pre-determined, so expect year on year rises, more so as people use less water! Ironic isn't it, but the price will go up to cover the profits, so the less people use overall, the more they will pay per m3 - I am with Bristol Water, Ј35. per month for a property in an affluent area, seems incredibly low. A couple of years ago I moved into a 2 bed 1929 bungalow in a mid class area of Bristol, this years water bill based on RV was over Ј600. I had a meter installed and will be saving approx. Ј300.
- I had a really crummy 2 bed flat in a really crummy area served by Bristol Water and paid Ј35/month, and I though that was pretty cheap.
Ј35/month for a 4 bed in a nice area, you were laughing! Not any more though it seems. - Ј35 PM for an effluent area is relatively low .My non metered bill was Ј550 PA .
Its always possible that the OP has a leak .
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